Photo: New York, NY - Nine were arrested
in New York protesting at Wellpoint insurance. About 50 health care
reform supporters picketed outside in the rain, including Ken Weinberg,
MD (not pictured), who will be risking arrest at a New York health
insurance office in the coming weeks to demand health care for all.

A
grassroots mobilization for health care reform is underway that
represents a groundswell of public sentiment in support of real health
care reform Medicare for all. Sit-ins and other acts of civil
disobedience are occurring in cities across the country including New
York, Seattle, Philadelphia, Columbus, Los Angeles, St Louis,
Albuquerque, Atlanta, Providence, Fort Lauderdale, and San Francisco.
(Schedule of events listed by city is below.) The events are being
coordinated by the group Mobilization for Health Care for All,
which is not funding the actions but is helping individuals link into
groups of people that want to participate in a growing movement that
gives people an outlet for their frustration around insurance companies.

Today
37 were arrested, although 73 staged a sit-in or blockade and were not
arrested due to the entire building being put on lockdown. Tomorrow,
several dozen more risk arrest, including Margaret Flowers, MD, a
former pediatrician and mother of three teenagers. (More information on
Flowers is below.) A growing number of doctors and nurses are joining
in the events to risk arrest for real health care reform, reform that
addresses the main cause of the health care crisis, the insurance
companies. They are demanding that health insurance companies
immediately redirect all lobbying funds to pay for doctor-requested
lifesaving treatments. 78 people have been arrested so far as part of
the national mobilization (17 in the first week, 7 in the second, and
54 in the third). In this next wave, over 100 people will risk arrest.
In the first two weeks actions took place in just two cities, New York
and Chicago. In the second day of national action, actions took place
in nine cities. This week, actions happen in 19 cities.

Mobilization for Health Care for All has
seen almost 900 people sign up to risk arrest at a health insurance
office in the past four weeks. The mobilization itself was launched on
September 29 in response to a growing sentiment among Americans that
something had to be done to call for meaningful health care reform.
Participants with the mobilization represent a new, more extreme tactic
employed in the health care debate, targeting the insurance companies
and demanding that lobbying dollars be redirected to providing care for
the hundreds of people denied doctor-requested lifesaving treatments
every day by an insurance company.The campaign continues to grow.

"This
will be one of the largest campaigns of nonviolent civil disobedience
since the civil rights movement. We're seeing people coming out of the
woodwork on this one," stated Kai Newkirk, national coordinator of Mobilization for Health Care for All."It's
just beginning and will continue and build until we win and the
insurance companies no longer stand between us and the care we need."

Chanting
"patients not profits" and "insurance companies are killing us and
killing democracy," with signs that say "insurance companies are the
real death panels," participants in the sit-ins will walk into the
offices and demand that insurance companies immediately route all the
funding the currently pay for lobbyists to providing care to patients
who need it. The participants will sit down and refuse to leave until
their demands are met. Many of them expect to be arrested for
trespassing, disturbing the peace, or another charge.

San
Francisco, CA - About 40 people risked arrest at Blue Shield of
California in San Francisco. Police put the building on lockdown rather
than allowing people to come inside to state their demand that the
company redirect all its funds that it currently pays for lobbying
efforts and use it to pay for doctor-requested treatment for people
with life-threatening conditions.

A doctor who has testified before Congress tells why she is risking arrest at CareFirst tomorrow to demand health care reform.
Flowers intends to stay in police custody until CEO of CareFirst meets with her.

Sit-in at CareFirst insurance company

Thursday, 10/29, 12:00 PM

3401 Boston St &1501 S Clinton St, Canton Crossing, MD

Margaret
Flowers, MD, will be sitting in with dozens of other health care reform
supporters tomorrow at CareFirst insurance company and risking arrest
for meaningful reform. The sit-in at CareFirst tomorrow is part of a
grassroots groundswell of people calling for health care reform that is
being supported by Mobilization for Health Care for All in
which over 100 people are risking arrest at a health insurance office
in the next week. Flowers participated in an act of civil disobedience
for health care reform in May on Capitol Hill, which resulted in Ted
Kennedy asking her to testify before the Senate Health Committee.

"We must stop this abuse by private
insurers. We are the only industrialized nation that allows health
insurance companies to profit at the expense of human lives. There are
at least 45,000 adults who die each year because they don't have health
insurance and an estimated 110,000 preventable deaths each year in the
US (the worst of any industrialized nation). We have a simple solution
that will end this - expanded and improved Medicare for all. Our
legislators know this but they lack the political will. We can create
this political will through our actions.

I
am planning to risk arrest, which may have serious consequences for me
-- up to six months in jail. But it won't be as serious as the suffering
and needless deaths that too many face each day in this nation. I hope
you will join me in our action in Baltimore on Thursday. If you can't
risk arrest, at least you can stand in solidarity with us during the
legal picket."

Kevin Zeese is co-chair of Come Home America, www.ComeHomeAmerica.US which seeks to end U.S. militarism and empire. He is also co-director of Its Our Economy, www.ItsOurEconomy.US which seeks to democratize the economy and give people greater (more...)